For The Greater Good
by VelvetAtom
Summary: 'Til death do us part. When Sophie McKinney said those words on her wedding day, she ever imagined that she would wake up over 200 years in the future to find her husband murdered and her baby boy, Shaun, kidnapped. One year in to her new, messed up existence, Sophie meets Paladin Danse, joins the Brotherhood of Steel and her whole world is turned upside down for the second time.
1. Chapter 1

It was black and cold. Sophie McKinney sucked in air as hard as she could, frantically grasping handfuls of the stuff, edging her feet forward in tiny steps.

"I can't see, someone help me... please!"

She had been here before. She just knew it. If only she could just see where she was going, maybe she could find her way out of here, or see someone that she knew - someone that could tell her where to go.

Sophie walked further in to the darkness, struck by its apparent perpetuity.

"Please," she was starting to panic now, "SOMEONE, WHERE AM I?"

She gasped as she heard banging from behind her. Spinning around and almost stumbling, she ran in the opposite direction from which she had come. It seemed that the further she ran, the more she could see light in the distance. Eerie and blue, almost glowing. She ran faster until shapes emerged from the glow, solid, hulking metal shapes. Sophie couldn't quite make out what they were, until she got closer. Tanks? Or some sort of pod? That was it. They were pods.

Walking round to face one of them, all of the breath in her lungs vanished and she choked for relief from the sudden shock that a lack of oxygen brought. She was staring at herself, an expression of horrified anguish, frozen in time, staring back at her. She knew where she was now.

Sophie turned around slowly, knowing what she was about to see and knowing the pain it was going to cause.

The face of her husband, Nate, was deformed by a gunshot wound to the head. Cryogenically frozen blood was pooled in his eyes and his head slumped to the side. Lifeless and cold, just like every time she had visited before.

"Nate," she whimpered, "oh God, Nate, NO!"

"Looking for this?" the voice asked.

She could never forget that voice. Rough, like sandpaper across her face.

Sophie turned again and was faced by a man. Tall, bald, scarred and holding a heavy pistol covered in Nate's blood. And her son in his arms.

"Give. Me. Shaun." she pleaded, "GIVE ME HIM!"

Sophie lunged forward to take the bundle from Kellogg, but he was too quick for her. His cruel, maniacal laugh filled her ears and as she watched he placed the metal barrel of the pistol directly between her baby's eyes.

"NO!" her scream was animalistic, it filled the dark abyss with echoing pain and merged with the sound of the pistol firing.

Sophie fell to her knees as her son turned to red ash in Kellogg's arms and for a second, she thought she could hear a woman calling her name.

"Leave me alone," Sophie cried, "he's gone."

"MCKINNEY!"

Sophie's eyes opened and with a start she sat bolt upright.

Scribe Haylen was staring down at her, sweat on her panicked brow and a syringe in hand, ready to inject. She considered Sophie for a moment, then without anymore hesitation, she jammed the thick needle in to the soft flesh of her thigh and pushed the plunger down with a steady thumb.

"Jesus, Haylen." Sophie winced, and watched as the needle was withdrawn and a small flourish of blood soaked through her blue vault suit. Not a total tragedy, Sophie hated the thing anyway, "Don't you think we should get to know each other a little bit better before you start injecting me with God only knows what?!"

"You were having some sort of seizure, I think" Haylen ignored her jibe, "it's just Calmex, it'll take the edge off."

"It was just a bad dream, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to fall asleep." Sophie pushed her long, tawny hair out of her face, taking note that the shaking in her hands seemed to subside a little.

Haylen looked down at her again whilst packing up her medical bag, "Not like any kind of dream I've ever seen someone have before..."

"I told you she was a fucking liability Haylen, her wailing could have brought more ferals down on this place and then what? We'd be screwed!"

"...Rhys,"

"I was the one that came along and saved your ass from the ferals in the first place, God damn you! And you better get used to me, because I'm not going anywhere." Sophie retorted.

"Too bad," Knight Rhys gave Sophie a look of resentment, "I was getting used to the thought of you leaving-"

"Rhys, that's enough." the intimidating figure of Paladin Danse emerged from the main entrance to the abandoned Cambridge Police Station.

"But-"

"I will not hear it!" the Paladin was in full power armor, his face was stern but his features were chiseled, dark and attractive, "Like it or not, you're going to have to learn to work together."

Sophie shot Rhys a smug look from her spot on the floor.

"And you."

She started, and her eyes snapped immediately back to Danse.

"You need to understand what it means to be a part of the Brotherhood."

"Yes, Paladin."

"Scribe Haylen, Knight Rhys, I want all of our gear packed up and ready for our departure to the Prydwen. Now."

"Yes Paladin, Ad Victoriam!" they saluted, leaving the room together.

"Ad Victoriam?" Sophie questioned, "what does that mea-"

Before she could finish, Danse cut her off, "It means, 'To Victory' and in our eyes, defeat is unacceptable because we are fighting for the future of mankind."

"I'm honoured to be a part of this, Danse"

Danse's expression softened a little and Sophie noticed the scar on his right eyebrow where the hair didn't grow there anymore, and the scar underneath his right eye and that his eyes were as dark as hers were light. His head was covered by a hood, that Sophie assumed would be to protect him underneath his heavy armored helmet, but she could tell that his hair would be dark too. For a fleeting moment she had a strange, spidery sensation spread through her stomach that she had no control over.

"I've received orders that we're both to report to the Prydwen immediately-"

"The ship?" Sophie looked away from Danse for a moment, suddenly aware of her own intense gaze, "I saw it approaching the Commonwealth a while back."

"Don't interrupt me," Danse's face was taut again as she looked back, "but yes, the ship. I want you to be the first to know, that I am recommending you for a promotion to the rank of Knight, but nothing is certain until you speak with our commander, Elder Maxon. Are you ready?"

"I'm ready."

She followed Danse to the roof of the station. The silence was awkward, only broken by the odd clunking, whirring noises from his suit of armor. When they reached the roof, she saw the Vertibird. Sophie had heard people in Diamond City talking about Vertibird aircraft that were used by the Brotherhood, she never thought she would ever be in one. Danse climbed aboard and stretched his gloved hand out to assist Sophie. He supported her lithe figure with ease and allowed her sit beside the mini-gun whilst he stood.

From up in the air, she could see everything. The buildings became smaller, the streets were almost unrecognisable and for a moment, the weight of her situation didn't seem so crushing. Ever since Sophie had clawed her way out of Vault 111, she had been unable to control her sadness, her loss of purpose. Nightmares plagued her every time she closed her eyes. Her dead husband, her kidnapped son, over and over again with no sign of relenting. She had spend a year travelling the Commonwealth, navigating her way through a completely alien world filled with poverty, disease, radiation and murder, trying to find out why this had happened to her. With the help of a detective she had met in Diamond City, she had found out that her son has been taken by the Institute, and she had tracked down and killed the man responsible for ripping her family out from underneath her. The man that still haunted her dreams, Kellogg. She had even managed to access his memories and find out more about how the Institute operated, but that's where it ended. The detective helping her, Nick Valentine, was a synth. A synthetic human, made by the scientists of the Institute. A robot, a robot that you often did not know was a robot because they were practically human. Sophie had appreciated his help to begin with, but she could no longer stomach his company or his apparent kindness. It was too much for her to comprehend, fighting to find her son, fighting the people who took him away from her alongside... one of them.

"There she is, my God it's good to be back."

Sophie had been so deep in thought that she had stopped absorbing her surroundings, she glanced up to see Danse looking above towards the Prydwen. A great beast of an airship, steel in structure and in colour, it was more impressive than she remembered when she saw it arriving, standing on the rooftop of Fort Hagan, covered in Kellogg's blood having just ended his life in the name of revenge. Sophie felt a swelling in her chest, a feeling of immense hope. If anyone could help her get what she wants, it would be the Brotherhood, the Prydwen was enough evidence of that.

After boarding the great airship, Danse left to report and Sophie was introduced to the second-in-command, Lancer Captain Kells. A strict military man, who made sure she knew exactly where she stood regarding her new position within the Brotherhood. Sophie did a lot of nodding and agreeing before she was dismissed and sent to watch Elder Maxon's address. As she entered, the hot air and smell of steel and grease washed over her. Directly in front, beyond a staircase leading in to the bowels of the ship, was a set of thick metal ladders and through the gaps she could see Paladin Danse speaking in hushed tones to a man in a long jacket, with the symbol of the Brotherhood emblazoned on the shoulder. Sophie walked around the ladder, trying to get closer so she could listen a little without being seen.

"Arthur," Danse said, his hands behind his back in a show of respect for his superior, "I have never seen anything like it. She was... fantastic, outstanding even. The way she listened to my orders and destroyed those synth abominations in the ArcJet building without question. I think- I know, that she's right for us. Her intentions are good."

"Are you sure about this, Paladin?" Elder Maxon's voice was low and gruff, not at all what Sophie had expected.

"I want to offer my sponsorship," said Danse, "I wish to mentor her and see her through the beginning of her journey with the Brotherhood, and beyond if I can."

"Very well Paladin, but I am warning you, any insubordination on her part will fall back on you. I will hold you responsible for her actions for the forseeable future, do you understand me?"

"Affirmative."

"Dismissed Paladin."

Sophie turned to move out of the way, a small smile tickling the outside of her mouth at Danse's words. She shrunk in to the corner as she heard Danse's Power Armor approaching so the wouldn't spot her and watched as he ascended the ladders to the main deck. From where Danse had disappeared, the booted feet of scribes, lancers and knights began to emerge, animated chatter about Elder Maxon's address flowed over Sophie's ears. She waited for a few of them to enter the windowed room where Maxon stood awaiting them before she followed. Sophie found a spot near the back of the crowd, intending not to draw too much attention to herself, but her bright blue vault suit seemed to be doing that job without much interference from her.

"Brothers and Sisters," the Elder began, "the road behind has been long, and fraught with difficulty. Each and every one of you has surpassed my expectations by rapidly facilitating our arrival in the Commonwealth."

Now that Sophie could get a proper look at Elder Arthur Maxon, not only was his voice different to what she had imagined, but he was much younger. Possibly a man in his very early twenties, but with a much older head on his shoulders and more life experience than any young man from before the Great War, that much was clear.

"Beneath the Commonwealth, there is a cancer, known as the Institute. A malignant growth that needs to be cut, before it affects the surface. They are experimenting with dangerous technologies that could prove to be the world's undoing for the second time in recent history."

Sophie lapped up his every word with hungry intent.

"The Institute Scientists have created a weapon that transcends the destructive nature of the atom bomb. They call their creation the 'synth,' a robotic abomination of technology that is free-thinking and masquerades as a human-being. The notion, that a machine could be granted free will is not only offensive, but horribly dangerous."

Beside her, a scribe made a noise of disgust and the rest of the group agreed with fervent enthusiasm as Elder Maxon declared the Institute enemies of the Brotherhood of Steel.

"Ad Victoriam!" the crowd yelled as they dispersed from the room, leaving Sophie standing alone with the Elder.

"It's clear from Paladin Danse's reports that you understand our core values," Maxon beckoned Sophie forward with a look, "he feels you've become quite an asset to us."

"I heard." said Sophie.

"So, do you make a regular occurrence of listening to private conversations?"

A prickly flush of embarassment creeped up Sophie's neck, "My apologies, Elder. It wasn't my intention to-"

"In any regard, seeing as he is one of my most respected field officers, you couldn't get a better recommendation. Therefore, from this moment forward, I'm granting you the rank of Knight. You will have your own suit of Power Armor, befitting your title of course, and I require you to report to the Flight Deck for your next orders once you have familiarised yourself with the Prydwen and my staff. Do you understand?"

Sophie nodded.

"Very good Knight McKinney, you are dismissed."

Sophie closed her eyes as she took her turn in ascending the ladders. With each step she climbed, she tried to lessen her embarrassment at being caught listening to Maxon and Danse's conversation by imagining taking the fight to the Institute. At the top of the ladder, Danse was waiting for her. He'd changed out of his Power Armor and was wearing his Brotherhood uniform underneath. His dog tags hung around his neck and the fitted uniform accentuated his broad shoulders and muscular arms. He'd taken off his hood as well, Sophie was right. Warm black hair covered his head, it was thick and shiny on top, but short around the back and sides. Reminded uncomfortably of Nate, and remembering what it was like to run her hands through his hair, she pretended to be very interested in a scribe who seemed to be making some repairs to a pipe on the wall.

"Congratulations, Knight McKinney."

"Thank you, Paladin. I appreciate... your support."

Danse looked at her, confused by her hesitation, but did not comment, "So, I believe Elder Maxon gave you orders to meet the team aboard the Prydwen, if you like, I could accompany you before showing you where you will be sleeping?"

They walked the length and breadth of the Prydwen together. Sophie met Proctors Ingram, Quinlan and Teagan, then Knight-Captain Cade who performed her medical examination.

"Please answer honestly," Cade asked, "have you ever had sexual relations with any species considered non-human?"

"Do synths count?"

Paladin Danse almost choked on a swig he'd taken from a bottle of Nuka-Cola and Knight-Captain Cade did not take the joke with the good spirit that Sophie had intended and she spent the next twenty minutes receiving a lecture. She swore she saw Danse smile out of the corner of her eye.

Danse walked with her on to the upper levels of the main deck, explaining that this area above the mess hall is where she would be assigned a bed and a footlocker to store her things.

"Showers and restrooms are on the lower floors, they are segregated so I can't take you down there, I'm sure Scribe Haylen would be pleased to show you around... I'm not sure where they have put your bed... SQUIRE!"

A boy, no older than twelve, jumped to attention, wearing a scribe uniform, like a tiny version of Haylen's.

"Yes Paladin, Sir!" he said.

"Squire, can you please show Knight McKinney to her bed?" Danse absendmindedly ran his hands through the back of his hair.

"Uhh," the squire looked at his feet, "I'm sorry Paladin, there hasn't been a bed assigned for this Knight yet. Proctor Teagan said he would look in to this as a matter of urgency-"

"Not enough beds?!" Danse said, "Right, never mind. Off you go."

The squire ran off in the opposite direction, clearly glad for the chance to escape the conversation. Sophie watched as he stopped, realised he was going the wrong way to his destination, but decided to continue on regardless, in favour of not passing past Danse a second time.

"You can sleep in my bed, in my private quarters, McKinney."

"Danse, it's fine, I can-"

"It's just until Proctor Teagan can acquire another bed for you. I'm slightly embarrassed that we didn't have something already arranged..." he paused. "I have a perfectly good sofa in the room, I can use that."

"I'll take the sofa! It's fine."

"I won't hear any more about it, Knight."

Danse's room was through a door, across from the ladders to the main deck. Sophie smiled as she stepped inside. If she didn't know that this was Danse's room, she could have guessed. A Brotherhood flag hung on the wall, accompanied by posters of Vertibirds, the Prydwen and laser pistols. The footlocker at the end of Danse's bed had a pile of clean uniforms lying on top of it and she could see a white vest slung over the end of the sofa. Danse rushed ahead of her, picking the clothes up and stuffing them in to a near by drawer.

"My apologies, I wasn't expecting any one to be in here apart from... well, just me really."

Sophie loosened the zip from the neck of her vault suit, it was comfortable enough to sleep in for the moment. She lay down on the bed and pulled the blanket up to her chin. The straw pillow smelled clean, but with a trace of metal. Like the smell of Power Armor. She watched as he crossed the room to turn the lights off. The room was dark, but not completely, as a dim glow from the red exit sign above the door kept things illuminated enough for her eyes to adjust to. Danse stripped off next to the sofa, Sophie pretended to look elsewhere. Down to just his underthings, Danse's physique became apparent and Sophie felt her heartbeat quicken. _Stop it._

She looked up at the ceiling as she heard Danse lay himself down.

"I heard you yelling," he whispered in to the darkness, "earlier when Haylen was helping you, at the Cambridge. I heard it from outside."

Sophie didn't know how to respond to him.

"I just want to know what to do if it happens-"

"It's not going to happen again. Okay?" Sophie's voice was authoritative, strong, but inside she wasn't so sure that was the truth. Every night since she woke after being frozen in Vault 111, she had the same nightmare. Usually, no-one else was around to hear it.

"We're going to fight together." Danse said, "As a brother and sister of the Brotherhood of Steel. I'll watch your back, if you watch mine. It's imperative that we are honest with each other. I don't ask for much from anyone under my command, other than honesty. And respect."

Sophie sighed, "Do you have family, Danse?"

"The Brotherhood of Steel are my family." he said.

"No, I mean, have you, ever held a newborn son in your arms?"

"No, I-I haven't."

"It's incredible," said Sophie, "the best feeling in the world."

She closed her eyes and pictured her life before the war. The day she brought Shaun in to the world, screaming in pain as Nate held her hand and encouraged her to push harder. Sophie had never felt pain like it and thought she would never feel worse pain ever again in her life. After the midwife placed Shaun in to her arms, she struggled to remember what the pain was like. But now she felt that pain every single day. Only it was more painful, more searingly hot and this time there was no relief.

"The Institute... took my baby. They murdered my husband. And they left me to rot and suffer in this wasteland." Sophie heard Danse shifting his weight on the sofa. She wondered if he was looking in her direction.

"Sophie, I'm sorry."

She felt a lump in her throat at the sound of him using her first name. If she hadn't been preoccupied with the sadness of losing Shaun, she was sure that the same, spidery sensation that she felt earlier would have accompanied it.

"I have to find him Danse. I want to love the Brotherhood, but if you want my honesty, I _need_ the Brotherhood to help me get to him."

"I understand." Danse said.

"You don't understand," she said, not unkindly, "not until you have a child of your own. This kind of love it's-it's too strong to explain."

"I want to help you. Let me."

She lay awake, fear of seeing Nate again and watching Shaun turn to ash kept the sleep from taking her. She stared at the ceiling, listening to Danse's slow, heavy breathing.


	2. Chapter 2

Sophie was so thankful for the hot, running water from the showers, that she could almost forgive their lack of privacy. She wasn't entirely sure how they worked, being on the Prydwen which seemed to hover magically above the abandoned Boston airport. She assumed that it would be a feat of engineering from Proctor Ingram no doubt, who Sophie had come to realise was the driving force behind keeping the airship in working order. She had been spending a lot of time with Ingram in the last few days. Her new suit of Power Armor wasn't in the best of shape. Ingram had been showing her how to repair and make modifications to the suit and watched as Sophie carefully painted the colours for the rank of Knight on the armored plate and frankly, she was grateful for the distraction, anything to keep her out of the firing line of Knight Rhys, who she was sure to throttle before the week was up.

She closed her eyes and let the water wash over her, standing directly under the flow so that the water obscured her vision for a moment. Rubbing her eyes, she held her hands in front of her face and observed them. Tracing her fingers over the burns on her knuckles from the welding torch she had been using, she sighed. Sophie wasn't sure she was ever going to get the hang of it, and any more burns and her hands were going to look like they belonged to a ghoul.

Sophie lowered her arms and made eye contact with Haylen, she jumped.

"Shit!" she instinctively covered her chest.

"Sorry," Haylen muttered "I didn't mean to frighten you."

"No, it's fine," said Sophie, "I-I didn't hear you over the noise of the water."

Haylen smiled and turned around to face her own shower as she began to undress. Sophie had only ever seen Haylen in her scribe uniform, with combats, boots, jumper and a vest filled with pockets, paper, pencils, weird gadgets and various other instruments Haylen needed to complete her work sticking out of them. She almost always had a hood to cover her hair with safety goggles balanced on her head.

Sophie watched as Haylen hung her uniform neatly over the metal divider that marked the entrance to the womens shower area. As she pulled off her hood and shook her head like a lion shaking its mane, a thick mass of auburn hair fell to just below her shoulders. The shower started and as the water clung to her body, Haylen turned to the side and Sophie admired her. She was shapely, with a small waist and rounded hips. She'd never had children, Sophie could tell just from looking at her round, pert breasts.

Looking down at her own, scrawny figure, she felt a certain amount of envy. Sophie had always been the skinny one growing up, even when she was pregnant with Shaun, it was a long time before anyone could have said she was pregnant, without her having told them. Nate always laughed and called her his "Little Ferret" because she was quick, straight up and down, but cute and fierce when she needed to be. Sophie always hated it, but what she would give to hear him say it, just one last time.

"So, are you heading back down to the police station soon?" Sophie said, feeling the need to make polite conversation, even over the noise of the showers and a spattering of laughter that was coming from the mens shower unit.

"I'm not sure," Haylen was washing the grime off from around her face, "Elder Maxon sent another reconnaissance team down there to give Danse, Rhys and I some time to recoup up here. Although, Danse has gone back down to Cambridge for a while, he's all soldier that man..."

"I see."

Haylen considered her for a moment, "Are you that desperate to get rid of us, Knight?"

"Maybe just Rhys..." Sophie shot Haylen a sideways glance and a smirk and they both fell in to fits of much needed laughter.

From that moment on, they were fast friends. Haylen even managed to get Proctor Teagan to move things forward with Sophie's bed allocation, although she was convinced that the bed had been there all along and it was some ridiculously unfunny joke of his and she asked another Scribe to move so that she and Sophie could have beds beside one another. They spoke late in to the night, ate together in the mess hall and Haylen let Sophie accompany her when she gave her file reports to the learned and interesting Proctor Quinlan. Sophie liked Quinlan, he reminded her of her favourite professor, when she attended law school. In her life before the war, which seemed like someone else's life now.

One night, as Sophie unlaced her boots and readied herself to bunk down, Haylen told her all about how she came to be in the Brotherhood of Steel.

"And after I wandered the Capital Wasteland for a while, the Brotherhood came recruiting and I decided that I could put my skills to use and joined them," she was propped up against her pillow reading a pile of technical documents that Quinlan had given her, "never looked back."

"Never? Don't you ever miss it, having a less regimented life?"

"If you think the Commonwealth is bad, you should see the Capital" Haylen looked up from her shuffle of papers for moment to make eye contact, "my parents were murdered in their sleep by raiders and fed to super mutants in cages for fun, then they burned our home down as they made me watch. Afterwards they-they..."

"It's okay, Haylen, you don't have to say anymore."

Haylen looked around, almost nervously, she seemed to have forgotten momentarily that there were others getting ready to bunk down, but no-one was paying them any mind, "I barely escaped with my life, I got my family back in a way, with the Brotherhood, I don't miss it at all."

"I lost my husband." Sophie swung her legs around on to her bed, laid her head down and turned on her side to face Haylen.

"Nate?"

"How do you-?"

"You talk in your sleep," Haylen said, flushed, "I wasn't listening or anything... it's just, it's quite loud sometimes..."

Sophie smiled; she should have known that Haylen would be the one person who was most likely to check on her during the night. Her rest had been better, she'd even managed one night without the same, recurring dream but she knew it was too much to ask for, to assume that she had stopped yelling out when she was unconscious with sleep.

"So, have you ever had a-?"

"A husband?!" Haylen laughed, looking back at her papers and crossing a few things out with a tiny pencil, "Gods no!"

"Pardon me, Scribe Haylen, Knight McKinney."

Haylen nearly fell off the side of her bed. Papers scattered everywhere as she jumped up and the large can of purified water resting on the wooden crate beside them toppled to the floor, splashing her, Paladin Danse and Proctor Quinlan's technical documents in the process.

"Shit!"

Danse picked up the can from the floor and returned it to Haylen then started picking up the soggy documents and laying them out. Haylen scrambled to help, a deep red flush creeping up the top of her arms and up her neck.

"I just thought I would let you both know before the night was out that I'm back from Cambridge, I wanted to oversee the temporary handover of the police station, we spent so long securing the place that I'd like it to stay that way."

"Sure, uh, it's good to have you back Paladin. I'm sorry... about the water." Haylen patted the documents flat on her bed, clearly concerned that some of the pre-war ink on them was beginning to run.

"I won't tell Quinlan if you don't..." Danse looked down at the bed and back up to Haylen and gave her a cheeky wink. This seemed to catch Haylen off guard who made a strange squeaking noise that Sophie had to try very hard not to laugh at.

"Knight McKinney," Danse turned to Sophie, putting his hands behind his back as he spoke, "Elder Maxon wants us to report to him at zero six hundred hours tomorrow, he has an assignment, and I offered to accompany you."

"Yes, Paladin." Sophie said.

"It's good to see that you have your own bed in place, I hope my quarters were sufficient to see you through your first few days aboard..." Danse nodded to them both, "Sisters."

Sophie watched as Danse turned on his heel and strode off. He was wearing his Brotherhood uniform with a brown leather jacket over the top that she had never seen before, he greeted others on the way to the stairs where he disappeared from view.

Glancing over at Haylen, Sophie noticed she was still watching the spot where Danse had just been. She was holding the can of water, upside down, whilst it dripped on to the floor.

"So, I better get some sleep... I've spent the last few days riding on the back of everyone else's hard work, so I better be sharp for the Elder tomorrow." Sophie returned to her bed.

"What?" Haylen snapped out of an apparent daydream and turned to Sophie, "Oh, yeah. Damn it, I better take these documents to Ingram and see if she has something that will help me dry them. And quickly. Quinlan is gonna kill me..."

Haylen, with wet paper draped over each arm, rushed off in search of Ingram, her clean hair tied in a ponytail, bobbing along at the back of her head. Sophie hoped that Ingram wasn't already settled for the night, she didn't want to have to deal with her wrath in the morning because of Haylen's soggy mishap.

Turning over to get comfy, she waited for now familiar call of "Lights out!" and wondered how long Haylen had been in love with Danse. She hadn't noticed it at the police station, but then she didn't know either of them very well when she'd arrived there. Haylen hadn't explicitly said anything to her of course, but Sophie knew unrequited longing when she saw it. She closed her eyes and let her mind wander for a moment. She tried to decide what it would be that Elder Maxon wanted her to do. And more to the point, why Danse wanted to come with her. Sophie opened her eyes again as the thought came to her that he might not think she was capable, and he was probably just checking up on her. After all, Maxon had told him that if she failed, it would fall back on Danse. That any misgivings of Sophie's would be his responsibility. _Asshole. He's looking after himself! Well he hasn't seen anything yet. I can take care of myself just fine. _Restlessly turning over again and punching her pillow in to a more comfortable shape, the call for darkness was shouted out and the lights shut down.

Sophie was sure she heard Ingram swearing from across the Prydwen.

* * *

Acidic air swirled in Sophie's nostrils as she stepped out on to the flight deck just before dawn the next morning. When she had woken, Haylen wasn't there. She didn't need to go looking for her to know that Ingram had probably made her polish every piece of Power Armor on the ship for waking her up. Proctor Ingram had lost her legs and used a heavily modified suit of armor to help with her mobility, she could only imagine her outrage of having to hoist herself back in to the suit to deal with Haylen's trivial matter. Sophie shuddered at the thought as a convenient flurry of cool wind passed over her. She liked Ingram, even admired her. But damn right she would not get on the wrong side of her.

Walking across the flight deck, she found Elder Maxon leaning over the railings and staring in to the distance. Sophie stood for a moment, and then cleared her throat.

"Knight, you are five minutes behind schedule. Better timekeeping in the future is advised."

Sophie looked down at her left wrist, where her Pip-Boy usually rested. Sophie had found the Pip-Boy when she had woken up in Vault 111 and it had served her well. At first, she had no idea how to use the tiny computer thing, but it soon became a very literal extension to her arm. Using it to track the time, where she was in the Commonwealth with the map, an inventory of her supplies and most useful of all, a Geiger counter which clicked impatiently any time she was near strong pools of radiation. She had prised the pre-war device from the wrist of a skeleton, wearing a lab coat and a Vault-Tec name badge. _David. David the skeleton who died just like my husband, my neighbours and everyone else in that blasted vault apart from me. _

"Sorry, Sir. Proctor Ingram took my Pip-Boy for repairs."

"Unacceptable, may I suggest that you learn to keep track of the time without a glorified timepiece."

Sophie seethed and she grit her teeth as she nodded.

"Now, I have had reports that you have spent the first week aboard getting to know your new surroundings and blending in with your brothers and sisters as I asked. I feel that you should have had more than enough time to settle in and I would like to give you your first assignment."

Where was Danse? Sophie wondered how long he would be, considering he had said he would come with her, to wherever the hell Maxon was sending her.

"Take a look over there," Maxon continued, turning around and focusing his scrutiny back on his earlier observation, "that's Fort Strong and it's infested with super mutants. Having those aberrations of nature close enough to smell is making me sick to my stomach."

Fort Strong really was a fort. Sophie looked over Maxon's shoulder at a large stone building in the distance, across the water from the airport on a finger of land that almost looked lost out at sea if she squinted her eyes. Tall and ominous looking, Sophie wondered how the hell they were going to get in there, if the place was guarded by ten-foot-tall super mutants.

"To make matters worse, they are sitting on top of a massive stockpile of Fat Man shells we could use in our campaign."

Sophie laughed, but caught the Elder's eye and straightened her face as best she could, "Fat Man, Sir?"

"The M-42 Tactical Nuclear Catapult. One of the most devastating weapons ever constructed. It delivers a miniature nuclear payload in a man-portable format and absolutely instrumental in aiding our cause."

No wonder the world ended up the way it did.

"I want you to head over there, wipe out everything that moves and secure that stockpile. Understood?"

Sophie looked at the Elder and contemplated him for a moment, which he seemed to pick up on without her saying anything. It made her feel slightly strange, the way he seemed to be able to read soundless thoughts.

"Look, I realise you're eager to take the fight to the Institute. Paladin Danse confided in me that you have a deep, personal interest in doing so."

_God damn it Danse! Is nothing you say private in this fucking flying tin can?_

"But it will have to wait. The Brotherhood cannot allow those abominations to have a nuclear arsenal at their fingertips. Now... we have a Vertibird on standby, fully armed and ready to depart. Use it to carry our message to Fort Strong and wipe those dirty mutants from the face of the earth. Dismissed."

"Ad Victoriam, Elder."

Sophie let out a long exhale of breath as she walked away from Maxon. Fucking super mutants. She had encountered them whilst wandering the Commonwealth and it was not a battle she was ever keen to fight. How could she find Shaun if she was crushed in to a pulp by a giant, lumbering green monster? She knelt to open her backpack and check her ammunition. Her Power Armor still wasn't fit for use, but now that she had her Brotherhood uniform and body armor, she was a little more qualified for survival than she was in her little blue vault suit, which had been scrapped for oil rags by Ingram. Sophie pulled her gun, _Righteous Authority, _out of her bag and attached it to the shoulder strap she'd made for herself, which sat snugly over her back once it was in position. She fiddled with the laser rifle, which was a gift from Danse, so that it was sitting comfortably. She had refused him, when he offered it to her initially, believing that it was too precious a piece for him to be giving to strangers. Danse had dismissed this, saying he had plenty more like it, which made it all together less appealing, but it had become a significant part of her equipment and she was glad of it all the same.

She approached the Vertibird Gunship, where a Lancer-Initiate sat up front, analysing the control board.

"Knight," the young woman said, nodding, "ready to go?"

Sophie peered inside, "Uh, have you seen Dans- the Paladin, anywhere?"

"I'm right here, Soldier." Danse emerged from the behind her, a vision of strength in his Power Armor.

Haylen trotted along a few steps behind him, carrying his helmet. She smiled at Sophie as she handed Danse his protective hood.

Ruffling his hair, before pulling his head through the hood and adjusting it so it sat correctly over his face, Danse relieved Haylen from the burden of the heavy helmet as she fussed over him.

"Be careful," she said, a concerned look etched on her pretty face as she looked from Danse to Sophie, "I worry about you. Both of you."

Danse placed an armored hand on her shoulder but said nothing.

Sophie raised a hand in farewell to her friend, and climbed up to join the Lancer-Initiate, ready to take on Fort Strong.

The flight had felt like it had taken just moments, maybe even seconds, before Sophie was thrown in to peril.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?!" she shouted over the choppy noise of the propellers. More to herself than anyone else. She steadied her shaking hands on the mount of the mini-gun, attached to Vertibird.

"Damn it," Danse's voice sounded tinny, coming from the inside of his suit, "a Behemoth..."

"Knight! You gotta take that thing out, otherwise I won't be able to find a place to set down-"

CRASH.

An earth-shattering noise echoed through Sophie's ears, she screamed, holding tighter on to the handles of the mount.

"McKinney! You have to shoot. NOW!"

CRASH.

The Behemoth was launching boulders the size of arm chairs towards its flying target causing the Vertibird to drop altitude as a result of the blunt force.

Sophie gained a clearer line of sight on the terrifying creature.

Thirteen feet tall, with skin that was green and rough, like broken down leather. Its forehead greatly overhung its sunken eye sockets which led on to a flat, monstrous snout and misshapen, yellow teeth lined the inside of its growling jaws. Attached to its back with rusted chains, was a metal shopping cart, filled with rocks, pieces of irradiated foliage and... human skulls. A filthy loin cloth dragged across the ground next to the Behemoth's feet, covering the lower part of its midsection.

CRASH.

The Vertibird tipped to the side on impact, and Sophie's palms, slick with sweat, caused her to lose grip on the handles she had been clutching for dear life. She tumbled from the gunship, her helpless legs dangling franticly in mid-air as she desperately hugged the base of the mini-gun with all of her strength.

Danse's reaction was almost instant. He rushed forward as the Lancer tried to steady the Vertibird and crouched to grab the back of Sophie's uniform to pull her back aboard.

"DANSE," Sophie was struggling for breath, using all of her might to hold herself up, "NO DANSE, SHOOT IT! SHOOT. IT!"

The Paladin hesitated for a moment, quite obviously torn between saving Sophie and listening to a command from his subordinate. After what felt like far too long, Danse mounted the mini-gun and open fired.

The noise was deafening from Sophie's position underneath the gun. She closed her eyes as shell casings rained down on her like a tropical storm, only the rain had been replaced with molten hot metal.

CRASH.

A pain ripped through Sophie's leg, she bared her teeth and roared out in agony. Daring to glance down, queasiness washed over her as she saw blood and burning. The smell of cooking flesh filled her lungs and it took all of her concentration not to pass out at the sight of the back of her leg. The Behemoth was flanked by two smaller but still deadly mutants, one of which had caught Sophie's leg with laser rifle similar to her own.

"AARRGH!" Danse let loose on his anger, firing more bullets down at their assailants.

Sophie listened as the giant creature let it out its own howl of pain, the mini-gun had finally brought it and its companions to their knees. A rumbling noise swept over them as the ground and the Behemoth collided.

Suddenly, Sophie's arms were relieved of the crushing weight of her own body. The world seemed to enter in and out of focus, and eventually, in and out of blackness.

"Stay with me Knight, please- come on!"

She felt the Vertibird make contact with steady ground but couldn't open her eyes. Her brain was too tired, her body too broken. She thought she heard a noise like a can of beer being opened, or maybe it was air escaping from someplace that it had previously been contained and then a pair of feet dropped down beside her. Her head rolled uncontrollably, too heavy for her neck to support, as a pair of strong, warm arms wrapped around her body. Now she was listening to someone knocking a rhythmic pattern on the door, no... that couldn't be it. It was a heartbeat.

Sophie forced her eyes open.

"Hi," she whispered gently placing her hand on Nate's face, willing her eyes to remain in focus, "it's... okay... I'm fine..."

Danse looked down at her, concern etched all over his sweaty features, his cheeks ablaze with colour.

Sophie closed her eyes and let the darkness take her.


	3. Chapter 3

"The extra Stimpaks should make a difference to your leg for now, Knight."

Sophie was propped up against the wall of a ruined outbuilding in the grounds of Fort Strong. The light of the day was well upon them now, and whilst the dull throbbing in the back of her leg where there had previously been a deep, bloodied wound was still occupying most of her attention, she was not unaware that any chance of catching the super mutants inside the fort by surprise, was gone. She watched as Danse fussed over her, he had elevated her leg using her backpack and kept pressing his gloved hand to her forehead, often abruptly and without any prior warning.

"Danse," she chided, swatting him away after what felt like the hundredth time of him roughly pressing his palm to her head, "will you stop it! You're not even going to feel my temperature through those gloves anyway, so you're wasting your time and pissing me off."

He withdrew almost instantly, looking down at his hand as he did. Sophie observed the embarrassment on his face, and immediately felt bad for being so sharp with him. It wasn't very often that the Paladin was flustered.

"I-I, _herrrhem_," Danse cleared his throat, "I was just doing what I have seen Haylen doing a thousand times... I forgot about the gloves-"

"Paladin," Sophie interrupted, getting herself back up on her feet whilst using the crumbling wall behind her for support, "I appreciate the concern, but _Haylen_ isn't here, is she? And I'm more worried about the shells that we're still to secur-"

Danse stood up, looking affronted at Sophie's decision to interrupt him, "I'll remind you who you are speaking to Knight McKinney, I am still your senior and I will not take orders from you."

Sophie made a loud _tsk_ and walked away from Danse, heading towards the fort. The ache in her leg wasn't making walking around too much of an issue, thanks to the stimulants in the chems that Danse had administered, and she was glad because she wanted to get as far away from him as possible and to take out some of her anger on the super mutants that were the reason they'd been sent here in the first place. _He is so frustrating! The sooner we get this thing done, the better. I can get back to the Prydwen and spend some time with people that don't speak to me like I'm a piece of mirelurk scat on their boots. Maybe I can speak to Ingram and see if she has any leads on what the Institute might be doing._

Sophie glanced over her shoulder to see Danse packing up their things as quickly as he could so he could follow her, she could hear the low rumble of his voice carrying on the breeze but couldn't make out what he was saying. Probably just as well, as she knew his words wouldn't be coming from a place of kindness and she was more than in the mood for another rebuke so that she had an excuse to give him a piece of her mind.

Swinging _Righteous Authority_off her shoulder, Sophie felt her hands calm at the feeling of the weighty rifle. She allowed her right index finger to curl comfortably around the trigger as she nestled the recoil pad below her collarbone.

_Remember Soph, the gun is a part of you, like an extension to your arm. Now, come here... that's it. Now, breathe in and pull the trigger when you breathe out... YES! That's my girl!_

Her eyes glazed over as Nate danced around in front of her, laughing as he picked up the empty Cram tin that he'd taught her to shoot with using his old air rifle in their back garden. Nathaniel John McKinney had been devilishly handsome and his boyish charm was always Sophie's main attraction to him. They were opposites, really. They didn't like the same music, or the same books, Nate drove Sophie mad with his constant joking around and she kept him grounded with her seriousness. They just worked and she missed him. Everything reminded her of him. Even in this world that was so far from the one they had explored together, it was still like he was close enough to feel. Like his energy was what kept her going.

She'd been lost, after leaving Goodneighbour. Viewing the memories of a man you just murdered in revenge and seeing your baby boy over 10 years older than you thought he was, wasn't something she ever anticipated having to deal with and it was taking it's toll. Sophie had always been the realist, the one to make solid, logical decisions but recently, she was finding it harder and harder to make rational choices and slowly it was beginning to feel like she was out of control. Closing her eyes and breathing in as much of the putrid air as she could without feeling ill, she tried to steady her thoughts and think about the road ahead. The one that would lead her to Shaun. If that meant using the Brotherhood to get there, then she would endure instructions from the most infuriating, rule abiding man she'd ever met.

"Knight!"

"Paladin," Sophie turned around to face Danse, who was carrying her backpack in his arms, "I want to apologise for my outburst. I'm... finding things... difficult to process at the moment, I'm not sure how to-"

"You don't have to say any more, Knight McKinney. I'm your sponsor, and I'll be here to watch your back no matter the circumstances. I do wish you'd make like a little easier on yourself, however by listening to commands more often."

Danse handed her the backpack, which she put on. Adjusting the straps so that it sat snugly to her back. The last thing she wanted was to lose her ammo when she was about to enter a building full of monsters, determined to turn her in to pulp.

"Okay, I'm ready."

"Outstanding."

* * *

Surprisingly, Sophie and Danse had secured the shells easier than anticipated. Whilst she had thought that the noise outside would have more than certainly alerted the mutants and she was expecting to come back to the Prydwen in a box, she had overestimated the intelligence of the creatures and they caught them by surprise despite their earlier assault. When they both arrived back on the airship, Sophie was greeted by Haylen who rushed her off to the medical wing so that Knight-Captain Cade could see to her wounds. Danse was largely unscathed due to his armor and after giving his report to Elder Maxon, was ushered off to the mess hall for celebratory drinks by some of the other, more boisterous soldiers. Sophie caught his eye as she hobbled past, leaning heavily on Haylen for support in getting back to her bunk. He looked grossly uncomfortable at all of the attention and like he would swap places with her in a second.

"Thanks Haylen, I appreciate you convincing Cade to let me stay in my own bed tonight."

"You're welcome," Haylen replied, helping Sophie swing her legs over on to the firm mattress, "trust me you don't want to stay in the medical wing. Cade will wake you up every hour for observations."

"I honestly can't think of anything worse." Sophie laughed, but grimaced as hot pain creeped across her ribs "God damn it, this being sore all of the time is going to take some getting used to."

Haylen sat down on the end of her own bunk and sighed.

"What's the matter?" Sophie propped her head up on her pillow so that she could survey her friend more closely.

"Oh nothing," Haylen said whilst removing her cap and trying to take the tugs from her hair with her fingers, "it's just that I'm heading back down to the police station tomorrow, we've still got a lot of untapped resources and technology down there to take care of and I just know that we'll not see each other for a long time, y'know you and Danse will go off to do other things. Maxon has big plans for infiltrating the Institute that you'll both definitely be a part of."

It was now or never.

"It's Danse, isn't it?"

"What?"

"I see the way that you look at him, Haylen. I'm your friend, it's obvious how much you love him. How long has it been?"

Sophie was met by silence and looked up to see Haylen staring back, her mouth open like she'd forgotten how to close it.

"Danse?!" she sputtered, "I- Danse isn't- he's not- he's like my brother!"

"Oh, Haylen I am so sorry, I mean... what was the deal with that weird squeak you made the other week then?"

"Thanks very much for reminding me of that, Sophie." Haylen unlaced her boots and threw them to the end of her bunk, beside her locker. "It's Rhys."

"Rhys?"

"Yes."

"You mean... Knight Rhys?"

"He was standing just behind Danse that night, with Aspirant Keighley? And I realised he was probably listening to us talk about... you know, everything and I just, froze. I don't know." she threw her head back on to her pillow with a force of frustration.

"I didn't even see him."

"Well you wouldn't, would you? You and Rhys are so hellbent on avoiding each other that I'm not really sure you'd notice if he was standing behind you right now."

Sophie turned her head, just to check. He definitely wasn't there.

"You love _him_?"

"He almost died that night when you showed up at the station, those ferals would have overrun us. I'm a Scribe. Not a soldier! I felt so helpless."

"He's just so moody all the time. Are you sure you really-"

"Give it a rest, Sophie," Haylen sat up again, "Rhys is more than what you think he is. Once you get to know him and get past that silly front he puts on, he's kind and gentle and he makes me laugh..."?

"Sorry! Sorry. Well, he'll be going back to the station as well, won't he? You'll have plenty of time to spend together."

"He's not coming to Cambridge. He's been reassigned to another squad to track a group of Gunners near Quincy, there's been reports that they've been trying to rebuild one of our fallen Vertibirds and Maxon doesn't want them as a threat to us in the air."

Sophie felt for her friend. Who she'd completely misunderstood. She watched as Haylen worried the ends of her hair between her fingers and sympathised with her. She herself had constant fear of losing Nate when he was posted away. He spent so long in the army before being granted military discharge. The sleepless nights were almost too much to bear, the thought that any moment, there would be knock on the door to say that she had lost the man she loved. Only the reality of losing Nate had been much worse. If he had died in the army, he'd have died doing what he loved. And she wouldn't have had to watch.

"You need to tell him how you feel, Haylen."

"No! No... no, definitely not. That's not a good idea. He won't- he doesn't feel the same way. I'm just being silly and it's fine. He'll go to Quincy and I'll go back to Cambridge and then we'll see each other here again.. at some point, as friends."

"Listen, if you don't do this and something happens to him, you're going to regret it. Take it from me."

Haylen looked at her for a moment, before standing.

"You're right."

"I am?" Sophie wasn't expecting an immediate uptake on the matter, "Are you sure you don't want to wait until tomorrow... you know, maybe sleep on it a little?"

"No, you're absolutely right. I have to tell him. And then I can move on. In fact, I might just tell him and then leave. Then I don't have to get an answer." She rummaged in her footlocker and produced a rusted mirror that looked like it has seen better days, "How do I look?"

"You've got a bit of dirt on the end of your nose, but other than that you look great."

"Perfect. Right. I'm off."

Sophie couldn't have gone after her, even if she wanted to. Her leg was pulsing painfully and her head seemed to weight much more than it should have. She watched Haylen storm off in to the distance, peering round every corner for some sight of where Rhys might be. _Rhys._Of all people. Sophie guessed the love really was blind, and tried to remember how different she and Nate had been. Maybe it wasn't so strange after all.


End file.
